Anthropology majors and race and ethnicity studies minors Karim Clarke ’26 and Nia Cannon ’26 presented their capstone research at the Southwestern Anthropological Association annual conference in Claremont, CA on March 27. Karim presented “Between Constraint and Autonomy: The Labor of Black Care and the Practice of Self-Defined Belonging at a Predominantly White Institution” and Nia presented “Beyond Being ‘Diverse’: The Lived Experiences of Black Women at PWIs.” Their presentations were very well received with at least one audience member initially believing they were faculty members themselves. The research emerged out of coursework with both Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed and Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson, as well as the SU Racial History Project, and Dr. Johnson’s current anthropology capstone course.

Anthropology graduate Zacharia Arifi ’24 recently published “Hors Place: Discursive Identities of the Modern Franco Kabyle” in The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, Volume 15, No. 1. His article is based on a project he worked on while at SU. Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed oversaw its development in the anthropology capstone, and Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson assisted Zacharia in creating a journal article publication. The article is available here.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed and Head of Distinctive Collections and Archives Megan Firestone were both interviewed and featured in the documentary “Segregation on Trial: Integrating Georgetown Schools,” filmed and produced by City of Georgetown Communications Manager Keith Hutchinson. The film debuted and was screened at the Georgetown Public Library on February 26, where Naomi and Megan both sat on a panel to discuss the film’s creation and importance with the larger Georgetown community. The film can be viewed here. The panel discussion is available here.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed presented her paper “A Healing African Diasporic Deconstruction of Ashkenormativity” at the American Anthropology Association Conference in New Orleans on November 20. The presentation was on the panel she also chaired, titled “Canonical Hauntings of the Body: On Harm and Healing—Knowledge Production and the Politics of Belonging.” Dr. Reed’s paper explores how the dismissal of whiteness by white presenting Ashkenazi Jewish Americans harms Jews of color and erases their experiences within the Jewish Diaspora. Through a critical inversion of the haunting paternalistic relationship between Jewish anthropologists and Blackness, she asks what Jewish Americans can learn from African Diaspora scholarship. She suggests that Jewish identity should be reconceptualized through African Diasporic notions of identity and race as a means to deconstruct Ashkenormativity and to fuel a healing critical recognition of Jewish diversity. Anthropology graduate Zacharia Arifi ’24 presented a paper on this same panel, titled “Bourdieu Awal and Me: Unraveling a Canon of Franco-Kabyle Ethnolography,” where they mediate the history of French ethnography with ethnographic fieldwork to posit how a legacy of disciplinal practice haunts ethnic identification among the French Kabyle. Particularly, they define how its corpus has codified and perpetuated hegemonic knowledge of belonging that supplant the diaspora’s autonomy in self-conceptualization. They consider, then, how its communities negotiate what it means to be Kabyle through living encounters with discursive expression. Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson served as the discussant for this panel. The conference program can be found here.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed presented a talk, titled “Oral History as Liberation,” at the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium’s Fall Conference, “Second Foundings: Universities, Slavery, and Struggles for Justice in Texas and Beyond,” at Rice University in Houston on Saturday, October 11. She discussed the Southwestern University Racial History Project’s oral history collection and the critical methodology used to gather, preserve, and exhibit stories of alumni of color. Her talk featured an excerpt of the oral history of Eva Mendiola ’75 that was recorded by SCOPE 2022 student Kalista Esquivel ’26 as well as a clip of the forthcoming documentary that she created with Esquivel and SURF 2025 student Mia Santoscoy ’26 about Mendiola’s journey to founding women’s sports at SU. The conference program can be found here.